Friday, April 29, 2011

My camera is broken, so this will have to be a pictureless post, a shame because the salad was quite pretty. I served it rolled up in toasted nori cones, but it would also be good in spring roll wrappers, lettuce wraps, or just heaped in a bowl. Mint gives the salad a summery flavor, but since it uses dried fruit you don't have to wait until summer to make it.

Monday, April 25, 2011

You can make these peanut butter meltaways in a single dish in your microwave, with only 4 ingredients. The meltaways give you the flavor combo of peanut butter cups, with a lot less work. (The white candies pictured are an attempt at a coconut meltaway, but they were a little off, so I'll revisit those another time.)

Friday, April 15, 2011

This dinner rocked. I've been using Trader Joe's peanut flour in my smoothies, but this was my first time cooking with it. I made a peanut flour batter, battered and fried the tofu, and then drizzled on a coconut milk-peanut flour sauce before serving. Crispy, peanuty, and just a little sweet, the peanut flour batter was somewhat reminiscent of pancakes. I served this with steamed broccoli and peanut-scallion rice.

Battered Tofu

In a shallow bowl, make batter by combining 2 parts peanut flour to 1 part white flour, a sprinkle of cornstarch, and enough almond milk to make a thick batter.

Slice a block of firm or extra-firm tofu into 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices.

Heat a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Dip tofu in batter, then fry about 2 minutes per side or until golden-brown.

Coconut-Peanut Sauce

Stir together about 1/2 cup peanut flour, 1/2-1 teaspoon powdered ginger, and a dash of salt.

Add a spoonful of sesame oil, and enough coconut milk to make the sauce the consistency you want.

Blend or vigorously whisk to get out the lumps. Microwave sauce for a minute before serving.

Peanut-Scallion Rice
Make rice. Just before serving, stir a couple handfuls of chopped peanuts and a few thinly-sliced scallions into the rice.

Monday, April 11, 2011

I just returned from celebrating my birthday with a long weekend camping in Yosemite. My husband made me this coconut cake and brought it along. He used the "Coconut Heaven Cupcake" recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, doubled it to make 2 layers, and put raspberry jam between the two layers. The cake didn't rise for some reason, so it was kind of flat and dense, but still pretty tasty, and an admirable effort for my cooking-phobic husband. Thanks, Justin!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Spring is in full-force here, and that means it's time to start grilling again! Yesterday I made some delicious portabella mushroom sandwiches by brushing the mushrooms in a mixture of olive oil and garlic, tossing them on the grill, and serving them on grilled bread slathered in Vegenaise. They were so good I gobbled them all up and forgot to take a picture.

Today I made grilled burritos. These are filled with refried black beans, quinoa, and carmelized onions. Quinoa is fantastic in burritos—less dense and more flavorful than rice. I grilled them at around 330° for about 4 minutes on each side. Delicious!

Hi Folks, my apologies to anyone who has had trouble with my site over the past couple days, as I've been giving my blog a bit of a makeover. The construction is now finished, and I hope you like the new look!